Path to the Civil War Quilt is Finished

The Path to the Civil War quilt that I have worked on for nearly two years, was delivered to the client about two weeks ago.  I still have to get it back and stitch on the quilt label that I have had embroidered for it.  That was a problem of not proper prior planning - something I don't usually do.  

My wonderful husband put a line up on the clothes poles in the back yard so I could take the quilt out that morning that I was going to make delivery.  It was 17 degrees outside with a cold wind blowing.  When I finished up out there, I couldn't feel my fingers anymore  - ouch!

But I was able to get pictures of everything.  I used the rising sun to my advantage too; hopefully you can appreciate the quilting that my wonderful quilter has done.

Here's the bag I made for the quilt to go in -

I used the last large piece of backing fabric I had plus one odd block to make this; it's just like a pillowcase.





















Then, the cheddar blocks that I refused to put into the quilt were made into a runner.




















 

And finally, all the blocks from the quilt.  All the blocks are quilted with a different pattern.  She used a camel colored thread.

Above - my "artsy" photo of the quilt.  followed by a closeup shot of the backing fabric.  This time around I used a wide back.  The jury is still out on this decision - I mean whether or not I'll do that again.  I'm not sure that the wide back is the greatest thing.  It had wrinkles in it that were so darned hard to get out in spite of wetting down, tumbling dry, ironing and starching.

Last pic - thought you'd never see the back of this quilt, did ya?  Ta dah!   So that's it, The Path to the Civil War quilt is done and dusted.  If I can remember to take a picture of the label, you'll see that in a few weeks.

Today I ironed (and ironed and ironed and ironed) fabric for the back of my granddaughter's quilt (header photo, quilt on the left).  I was only able to get 5 and an eighth yards.  That was all they had left on the bolt.  Fortunately, it was JUST enough.  I split the yardage in half and resewed it together, then took six inches off the width and added it to the length to get enough overhang for the quilter to use.  WHEW!  That one's all set and no more ironing from today.  I'm adding a list of my quilt projects to the sidebar, mostly to keep ME from getting confused. 

I've also decided that I'm going to keep changing up my header photo as I complete projects throughout the year that I'm particularly pleased with.  We'll see how good I am at keeping up with that.  Hope you enjoyed!

First of March and WINNERS!

Don't think I have any pictures to share, and haven't finished anything lately.  Well, that's not exactly true - I did deliver that Civil War reproduction quilt, but am still working on those pictures.  I'm still stitching on my Scarlet Letter sampler as part of Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year.  Making changes all over the place on that one.

But, I did take the time to sit down and draw the winners for the Blogaversary Giveaway!!!

The lucky folks - and what they won are - dah dah dah dah ! -

Peg C - won the April Prairie Schooler chart
Evelyne - won the Long Dog Sampler chart
April - won the needles
Kathy H. - won the mini-sampler kit
and Deb (The Threadgather) - won the Cherished Stitches chart.

Whoo Hoo!  Congratulations to all.  Turns out, I do have something to share.  At my last DAR meeting, we were entertained by Tom Dawson, a local fiddler.  He specializes in historical performances and he talked to us about the evolution of fiddle music in the US from our earliest days as a colony forward.  Hope you enjoyed.  All the winners - I'll be in touch with you by email; if you don't hear from me, it's because I can't contact you, so you'll need to contact me. 

WOWZER! and Don't Forget!

Tomorrow is the last day to register for the giveaway celebrating my Blogaversary!  Go to this post and leave a comment and you'll be entered.

When I made that post I talked about how I often go out and buy duplicates of charts I already have.  And, the hunt that I've been on for several years now for Prairie Schooler charts I'd really love to have.

One of those charts I mentioned is Christmas Alphabet, number 64.  Sadly, no longer in print. 

I got an email from Maggee who lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  She said that she had the chart and wanted to send it to me.

I wrote her back - absolutely over the moon - and asked if she was sure, because they do pretty well over on Ebay.

Well, today's mail brought me a big envelope from Maggee and inside was the Christmas Alphabet chart.  WHAT A NICE THING TO DO!!!!  I can't believe it. 

All she asked me for was to keep my eyes out for chart #45 - Garden Samplers. 

So, if you have one in your stash, that you don't want to keep, let me know. It looks like this:

So, two assignments - - - keep eyes open for Garden Samplers #45 and register for the giveaways!  Hope you enjoyed!

4th Blogaversary

It was on February 20th, 2009 that I first published to blogger.  I never in a million years thought I'd still be doing this four years later.  Or that I'd be enjoying it so much.  Or that I'd get to know so many wonderful people.  So, here's to my 4th blogaversary!

To celebrate four years, I've got lots of giveaways.

Many of you know that I collect Prairie Schooler charts.  I'm still schlepping around E-bay for the Christmas Alphabet, October and the Old Saint Nick books, but one day, I'll catch 'em.  I went a little crazy in 2012 - finding PS charts in shops and buying them, because I thought I didn't have them.  Unfortunately, some I did.  So, I have April and one other one that I can't find!!!  Well, when I do, I'll give that away too.  Grrr I know I had it here . . .




Anyway, I was so frustrated that I was doing this that I made myself something I call my Prairie Schooler Pocket Miracle.  I keep it in my wallet so when presented with the quandry, do I have it or don't I?   I pull it out and check.  Not giving away my pocket miracle, just the April chart.


 All Things sampler by Long Dog Samplers.

















Non-mint condition package of 3 John James gold needles, size 26. 


















 A kit called A Simple Sampler by the Sweetheart Tree.














A chart by Cherished Stitches - A Cherished Box.

 Make a comment to this post only and I will pull a winner at the end of the month.  Don't forget to tell all your friends!  Good Luck!

Hope That Groundhog's Right!

 "Cause this days wasn't fun.  Dateline - Last Friday - We keep getting these Alberta Clippers; note to Alberta - you can keep your clippers, thanks very much!  This one came through, dumped about a half inch of snow (just enough to make the roads really dangerous and then the wind came in behind it.  Blew and blew and blew and blew!  Made it look like it was still snowing.  I took my quilts over to the quilters and passed a car up-ended in a ditch.  At first, all I saw was the State Trooper's cruiser and he was sitting on his backseat sideways, with his feet out on the ground.  At first, I thought there was something wrong with him, but as I came by, I saw the car.  Good grief!  Our back roads were really tricky and if you weren't driving smart, stuff like that could happen.  I am so ready for this to be last winter, it's not even funny.  And yet, there are still idiots out there wishing for a blizzard like we had three years ago.  Ugh, excuse me, do you remember that we couldn't get out of our houses for like three days????? 

 A friend of mine, my oldest friend, in fact, has a birthday coming up this year.  I found this chart and made it into this at right.  I used a 32 count Belfast linen, I think it is Amsterdam Blue, but didn't have a label on it, so that's just a guess.  I thought I'd use up some of the leftover Raven from Gentle Art that I have.  Well, I did, but I still have lots of leftover Raven.   It's going to be put in a regular photo frame.

 Oh, that reminds me - forgot to tell you, the Civil War quilt is at the quilters, as is the small tessellated quilt.  They'll be the first to be done and then I'll rotate in the one for my granddaughter's birthday.

 Customer has given me the tea towel, upper left.  It's Order of the Eastern Star.  She wants me to make something out of it.  So, The photo above is a print out from a blog - I THINK it's Gazette 94, I really, really think that it is, but if someone knows different, kindly let me know and I'll make the correction.

Anyway, I'm going to make it into the receptacle - maybe for mail?  I'm going to stitch the little bird on 32 count white Belfast using all five colors.  Then it will go between the two 30's prints to form the lower section.

 I was inspired by this project in the Sew Beautiful magazine.  But, I didn't like the style of the raincoat.  Good thing, because when I went to the sewing shop to look for a raincoat, it was only in the McCall's line that I could find a child's raincoat pattern.  Very frustrating.  Anyway, the SBM raincoat featured zipper teeth as trim on the raincoat.  There weren't many places to do that on the pattern I got, but I did do it in the raglan shoulder seams.  Don't know if you can really see that in the picture, but I used a yellow separating zipper - they have bigger teeth.  My husband thought that this was really cool.  Last summer I'd bought the fabric - the big polka dot and the floral to do a purse project.  But, the more I looked a the purse pattern, the more I didn't want to do the project.  So, had the fabric, and decided I wanted to use it for the raincoat (for my granddaughter, btw).  Neither fabric was vinyl.  So, I bought iron-on vinyl.  Sounds an oxi-moron, doesn't it?  Actually, it was really easy and initially I was super impressed.  I had to cut each piece from the fabric using the pattern pieces, then to iron vinyl to each piece and trim.  So, a lot of work.  But, few pieces, so it wasn't too big a deal.  The problem came when it was time to sew.  Being woman-handled so much during the sewing process, made the vinyl separate from the fabric AND it got really wrinkly.  I am going to try and iron it again, but don't hold out much hope.  There is a resource online for oil cloth in bright prints, so if I ever do this again (which I probably will as my granddaughter is only 6), I would get that to make another raincoat instead.  The iron-on vinyl would be really great for things you don't have to manipulate too much during the sewing process or something that is already made that you want to make more waterproof.  In the second picture, you can see the hood.  I went out and got a smaller polka-dot flannel that I made the lining out of.  If you don't line them, vinyl raincoats can almost feel clammy - at least, I think so.  You can see a bit of the yellow zipper teeth in that second picture.

A new project, is really an old one.  I love, love, love quilts by Piece O'Cake Designs.  So, back in the 90's I was very ambitious and thought I had enough time to do all these.  Fortunately I had enough sense to just put them away for another time - instead of getting rid of them.  I bought six of these Tulips in the Park kits - they come with all the fabric included!  Not enough for the whole quilt, but enough to make a lovely wall hanging.  These are applique.  So, I've gotten started with one (progress below).  This will probably be a slow go.

 







I don't like needleturn applique, nor do I like the way the fusibles make the fabric feel.  So, I baste under my seam allowances and then applique them down.  Makes for a lot of extra work, but it gets the job done for me. 



I also have the pattern for the Stars in the Garden quilt.  I have done one of the blocks and made a pillow.  I will enjoy making the whole quilt in the pretty bright colors shown.

 I like to use scraps of vinyl from photo albums and the like to make placement layovers.  This one is a mess from being folded up in a box for about 15 years, but it will still work.  I also have one last POC design, Flowering Vines.  I think that this will be my next applique project as it combines piecing with applique.

Here is my progress on Susan Singleton (whom I'm calling Gentle Susan) for Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year.  

Last year I worked on this needlepoint project.  I'm doing a really good job of clearing out all my unfinished objects.  This has become the scissor case it was meant to be, lined with red satin, it has coral ribbon ties and fits my Sajou scissors perfectly.   Front, back and inside.

Finally, this is my blogaversary month.  I think it's four years now.  I have a bunch of things to make into giveaways so keep your eyes peeled.  Hope you enjoyed!